Winboard delay between games

[Laszlo Gaspar]

Hi all!

I would like to play engine matches with fast time control (<10sec). My problem is when I start Winboard with command /mg x, Winboard inserts 10sec between each game for no reason.
Can you help me to eliminate this behavior?

Regards,
László

[Volker Pittlik]

..., Winboard inserts 10sec between each game

Have you tried "reuse" and "reuse2"? I don't know if it is the deafult but it should shorten the waiting time.

If you like experiments then look in Winboard's source code. There is a fixed waiting time coded in it somewhere. You can shorten that and recompile.


Volker

[Laszlo Gaspar]

Hi Volker,

Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately the reuse command doesn't work in winboard (for me), I tried different ways (/reuse, /reuse=true, /reuseFirst=true, /reuse true), not to mention the default should be true.
The recompilation also doesn't work for me because I am not familiar with C developement (I could understand the code though).

Thank you and best regards,

László

[Roger Brown]

Hi Volker,

Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately the reuse command doesn't work in winboard (for me), I tried different ways (/reuse, /reuse=true, /reuseFirst=true, /reuse true), not to mention the default should be true.
The recompilation also doesn't work for me because I am not familiar with C developement (I could understand the code though).

Thank you and best regards,

László

Hello László,

There is also:

"LG2000v39" /fd="d:\program files\engines\LG2000v39" /xreuse ; /name="Little Goliath 2000 v3.9"

There is a nifty and quite wonderful Winboard ini editor by Thomas McBurney which saves techno phobes like me again and again.

I hope this helps.

Later.

[H.G.Muller]

Winboard intentionally delays 10 seconds, before it starts the new game of a match, even if (or in fact especially if) you 'reuse' the engine:

Code: Select all

   if (matchGame < appData.matchGames) {
       char *tmp;
       tmp = first.twoMachinesColor;
       first.twoMachinesColor = second.twoMachinesColor;
       second.twoMachinesColor = tmp;
       gameMode = nextGameMode;
       matchGame++;
       ScheduleDelayedEvent(NextMatchGame, 10000);
       return;
   } else {



I could easily make this 10000 (msec) a user-definable parameter, through, say, a command-line option '/matchPause'.

But probably it is there for a reason. The engine might need some time reinitializing, after a game end (e.g. clearing its hash table). I am not sure what would happen if you don't give it that time. Perhaps its clock will be started too early, before it is ready to start playing.

[Matthias Gemuh]

But probably it is there for a reason. The engine might need some time reinitializing, after a game end (e.g. clearing its hash table). I am not sure what would happen if you don't give it that time. Perhaps its clock will be started too early, before it is ready to start playing.

I shortened the time in ChessGUI and ran into the problem that late engine output from previous terminated game arrived in new game and messed things up.


Matthias.

[H.G.Muller]

Yes, this was what I was afraid of. Nevertheless, I you are sure the engines you are testing shut up quickly, a 10 sec pause seems like overdoing it. Especially if you play 40 moves in 1 sec.

Anyhow, in Winboard_F I have included the /matchPause option, to which you can give a delay in msec (from 10-10000). So people can experiment how far they can go.

[Laszlo Gaspar]

Many thanks for the replies!
I am now impatiently waiting for H.G-s Winboard modifications to try out...

Thank you and see you soon in tha Capablanca-Chess scene...!

Regards,
László